Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio has orchestrated intense and meaningful spring drills, and the results are beginning to show up in the production from the players.Josh Slagter | MLive.com

EAST LANSING — Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio opened the gates of the Big Green Wall on Tuesday, allowing media to watch 11 periods of football, include some live scrimmage drills in the sixth of 15 spring workouts.

The conclusion? The Spartans are getting after it, intensity is at every turn, and the competition for playing time is peaking.

Dantonio has made one thing perfectly clear: He's looking for playmakers, and to his credit, he's allowed his quarterbacks to be live while allowing as much contact as is allowed by NCAA rule.

On Tuesday, he even had crowd noise piped into the Duffy Daughtery Football Building, making the limited scrimmage action as game-like as possible.

"We try to make it as realistic as we can, we chop on the edge with tailbacks, we cut downfield some,'' Dantonio said. "There's risk involved, but that's how you have to play the game.''

The genius is in the simplicity for Dantonio and his re-shuffled staff, as the Spartans continue to search for the inches that eluded them in the five losses they suffered by four points or less last season.

Michigan State returns eight starters from last season's defense, which ranked in the top 10 nationally in all four major categories, so it's not too surprising coordinator Pat Narduzzi's unit wins the majority of the battles.

But in a brief 9-on-9 run scrimmage, the Spartans' veteran offensive line provided a respectable push and a couple of running plays over 10 yards were broken.

In another limited scrimmage opportunity, the Michigan State quarterbacks showed they could complete the quick passes underneath against the Spartans' skilled secondary. All three of the QBs — Andrew Maxwell, Connor Cook and Tyler O'Connor, fired strikes, and the receivers latched on without drops or miscommunications on routes.

It's an elementary phase of the game, but it's an area where a strong foundation must be set before the passing game can grow to the level Dantonio is demanding.

Granted, the Michigan State defense was missing a couple of preseason All-Big Ten candidates on Tuesday — cornerback Darqueze Dennard continues to be limited to non-contact drills, and safety candidate Isaiah Lewis was held out of contact for an undisclosed injury (he'll return Thursday) — but the offense's progress was, nevertheless, impressive.

"We keep pushing; I don't think we're ever where we want to be, (and) there's always something you look at on the practice field you say we've got to get better at,'' Dantonio said. "It's a Catch 22. You want your defense to play very well, you want your offense to play well. Someone loses when you are going against each other.

"But I love our chemistry, our activity, our want-to, our aggressiveness and our work ethic, and I think that's where it starts.''